Events

Randomness: Parker and I did, in fact, walk today (8 km), and it is, in fact, sunny and 16°C. Roger Ebert responds to Rush Limbaugh Via Greening Your Library, a quick and informative explanation of single-stream recycling. My books for next term only weigh 4 kg this time. I appreciate that. The 6 kg I carried to London was not fun. (This is a joke. Ha, ha.) Speaking of: "The cause of the floor's collapse remains under investigation." (I believe this is the source link.) Really. January.

We haven't heard anything yet from the newly-hired Fox "News" analyst, but I'm sure we won't have to wait too long before she adds to Limbaugh's and Robertson's inane comments about Haiti. I think we need to look to Jon Stewart for clarity: The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c Haiti Earthquake Reactions www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth Care Crisis

As "Chicagoans gaze out at a cover of snow for the 21st consecutive day" today, I'm once again in Raleigh, where snow fell once a few weeks ago but decided not to stay the night. It's already 9°C, going up to a predicted 16°C this afternoon. I plan to walk as far as my legs will take me (or Parker's will take him) later on. That's the problem, of course: in Chicago, we get maybe three days like this between November and March, so I'm a little giddy about it. On the other hand, Chicagoans do get a lot of...

Thousands dead, a country devastated, and this clown blames the devil? Seriously: "Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," [Televangelist Pat Robertson] said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a...

Something not often seen (or felt): a 7.0 earthquake just hit Haiti.

Apparently I got back to Chicago just in time for a heat wave: Arctic air's grip on Chicago's weather enters its 19th day Tuesday. But far-reaching changes in critical upper level steering winds taking place on a continental scale are to undermine the frigid air's dominance. The break in arctic-level temperatures may span much of the coming two weeks. Not until month's end may bitter winds of arctic origin return brutally cold air to the metro area. Coming days will offer winter weary Chicago area...

Via several sites, a NASA photo of Great Britain from Thursday noontime: The U.K. doesn't usually get a snow cover at all, let alone one this thorough. The U.K. Met Office has an explanation: In most winters, and certainly those in the last 20 years or so, our winds normally come from the south-west. This means air travels over the relatively warm Atlantic and we get mild conditions in the UK. However, over the past three weeks the Atlantic air has been ‘blocked’ and cold air has been flowing down from...

Funny on so many levels: File under "lazy Sunday posting."

Software entrepreneur Joel Spolsky says that's a good start, but only part of it: [L]et’s stop talking about “backups.” Doing a backup is too low a bar. Any experienced system administrator will tell you that they have a great backup plan, the trouble comes when you have to restore. And that’s when you discover that: The backed-up files were encrypted with a cryptographically-secure key, the only copy of which was on the machine that was lost The server had enormous amounts of configuration information...

Each day that we spend getting Parker to exist peacefully with the cats brings us closer to the goal of peace and harmony. This, I think, is what Parker fears (and the cats want): (Hat tip DK.) Yesterday, for example, one of the cats (Lily, the boldest) let Parker sniff her. Of course, I had my hand on his collar the whole time, but still, progress. Then, later that day, another cat (Nick, the ball of orange spite that makes Bucky look like a model citizen) tried to hit him for no reason. Oy.